Deal with a Demon
by StealOh
Summary: A take on how Emil and Ratatosk came to be two sides of the same coin. Summery sounds a lot crappier than the actual story. No romance. Contains spoilers!


**WARNING! Contains Major Spoilers for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World! Do not read unless you have finished the game or want to spoil some major plot points! There are even spoilers in the author's notes right below this warning! You have been warned.**

**While replaying the game I figured ****that the Emil you play as is not the same Emil as the son of Reysol and Lana (kind of obvious, no?). And then I was thinking: How did Ratatosk end up with the identity and memories of Emil?**

**And this is what I came up with.**

**Edit: I just wanted to point out that this story is partly canon and partly speculation/theory. It was brought to my attention that the story is not completely canon and that I hadn't said so. Sorry for any confusion ;) !**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

Deal with a Demon

All he could feel was pain. Sharp, searing pain.

From where he lay, he could see his parents, their blood mingling into the cracks of the cobblestoned ground of the plaza. His father was no longer breathing —dead— while his mother was alive, but not for long.

Just like himself.

He felt his life fluids drain from out of the huge rip in his skin and muscles; the wound given by a demon, given by Lloyd.

Emil wanted to laugh. What a joke! Lloyd, the hero, the man that many had worshiped and loved, was actually the opposite: a murderer.

Emil too had once idolized Lloyd. Being so close in age to the swordsman, Emil had often dreamt of meeting and becoming one of Lloyd's greatest friends.

'Well that dream sure has shattered,' thought the boy. 'That bastard had me and everyone fooled.'

Emil drew in a sharp breath and a stray tear rolled down his cheek as the pain got worse.

He didn't want to die.

* * *

Ratatosk growled in anger. He wasn't supposed to be so weak! He was Ratatosk, by the Great Tree! He was the strongest being to have ever set foot on this pitiful world!

It was all the half-elf's and the human's fault. If they hadn't bothered him, he would never have gotten into this mess! And the half-elf was particularly at fault! At least the human had been able to just _die_, but the half-elf _had_ to go and attack him, _didn't_ he.

And now _he_, the great Summon Spirit of the Great Kharlan Tree, had been reduced to a weak, wimpy, worthless ghost of a Summon Spirit, stuck for now in the body of the human he had killed before, in the Ginnungagap. He needed to regain he strength— fast! But how?

Upon being awakened, he had immediately left the girl who had called on him (she wasn't worth helping) and zoomed through the city searching for a source of energy to… well, he would never use the word _save_, but perhaps— to _nurture_ him.

He was passing by a bridge, when he suddenly felt a wave of mixed emotions: sadness, pain, regret, remorse, yet most of all wrath and hatred.

The strong and curious mix of emotions intrigued the Summon Spirit and led him over the bridge he had been passing, to a plaza. The plaza was littered with corpses that didn't interest Ratatosk, nor did they stir his heart. He was only curious as to where the emotions were coming from.

They were coming from a boy on the ground.

* * *

Emil had long given up hope that help would come. Undoubtedly, everyone was dead. Those who were alive had obviously fled the massacre. Now all Emil could do, was die. It wouldn't be so bad. He'd be with his parents in the afterlife; he'd be happy... Right?

A strangled cry escaped his lips, "I don't want to die! Not yet! Not now! Damn you, Lloyd!"

"Who is this this Lloyd you speak of?"

Emil painfully moved his head to the direction of the voice.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" asked the dying boy in disbelief. "How could you not recognize the person who's done all of this?"

The boy looking up at the person saw that it was a boy about his age with blond hair, one strand of it pointing towards the sky.

"Done all of what?" the blond asked.

"All this! Destroying Palmacosta and— Ergh!" Emil exclaimed as his wound suddenly flared with stabbing pain.

There was silence as Emil tried to catch his breath and the other boy stood wordlessly watching.

"You are dying," he stated simply after minutes of silence. "Do you want to live on?"

Emil couldn't believe his ears. Did he want to live?! "Of course!"

The blond boy paused before continuing, slowly. "I can... _help _you. Not to live, per cey, but to live on. Do you want my assistance?"

'To live or to live on. What's the difference? They're the same thing,' thought Emil. 'So why not?'

"Yes," answered Emil.

"Then rest in peace."

* * *

Ratatosk saw the confusion in the boy's eyes before he said the spell to knock the boy unconscious. The boy would die; it was inevitable. Nothing could save his life now.

But he could live on. Through Ratatosk.

With the last of his powers, Ratatosk gathered the weakest emotions and aspects of himself (what few he had), such as kindness, love, and mercy, and with them, formed another personality— another self.

He then knelt down beside the unconscious boy and stole his memories and ultimately his identity. These he set aside for his other self, ready to be remembered and used when he had to be this new other self.

Ratatosk had told the boy he would he would live on. And so he would. As the weaker side of Ratatosk. After all, who would suspect a strengthless coward to be the almighty Lord of the Monsters?

Hearing a noise, Ratatosk looked down.

The boy, had breathed his last.

The Spirit held no remorse. The boy had served his purpose.

Now, scraping at the very small fragments of power left, Ratatosk teleported back to the girl. He had decided she would be useful for one last thing to throw anyone (like that infuriating half-elf) off his scent until he was strong enough to fight again.

* * *

It was done. The girl now had the fake dormant core in her forehead.

Ratatosk knew he had used too much of his power right after implanting the decoy core. His vision was getting blurry, he couldn't think straight.

As the girl came around, he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you alright?"

He lost control over the body.

* * *

The boy of around 16 suddenly came into conscious.

'Where am I? What am I doing here? Who're these weirdos in the bird masks on the ground? Who's the girl with the radioactive forehead?' were his first thoughts. 'Wait. Who am I?' he thought as his heart sank.

"Are you the one who saved me?" asked the girl holding a hand to her forehead, the red glow from it slowly fading away to nothing.

The boy did not know. He knew nothing. Except that something was telling him to leave and get away, be anywhere but there.

A sudden howl from a beast made the boy absolutely positive that he had to get out of there.

"That's Tenebrae's howl," said the girl looking around.

The boy didn't care who or what a tenebrae was. It freaked him out and it didn't sound friendly.

"I have to go," he said turning around and walking away.

"Wait! What's your name?"

But he didn't answer. How could he? When he himself didn't know who he was? He just kept walking.

He wandered until he passed over a bridge and saw a sight that gave him a sickening feeling of déjà vu. There were bodies everywhere, but one in particular caught his attention. He passed the corpse of a boy and knelt down in front of a familiar looking woman whose hand was clasped with a man's.

She was still breathing.

Her eyes opened, sensing the boy's presence. "Emil, you came back."

Emil? Was that his name?

She looked up. The boy saw that her eyes couldn't focus on anything. She couldn't see. She had gone blind.

"Oh dear. I can't even see your face." she said with tears forming in her eyes. "I'm not going to last much longer. But you, you have to live." Her hand reached up and touched his knee. "You have to run before Lloyd comes back. Go to Luin. To your Aunt Flora," she pleaded. "Hurry."

Her hand slid from his knee and she gasped out the last of her life.

The boy stared at the now dead woman. Why was she so familiar? Had they known each other?

The wheels in the boy's head creaked and started to turn. A nagging feeling from the back of his mind was beginning to resurface, a word so foreign yet so familiar. His hand moved on it's own, towards the woman.

"Mom..."

The barrier holding back the memories broke and realization struck.

"Mom!"

He was Emil Castagnier of Palmacosta, son of Reysol and Lana. Now orphaned by the once-called Hero of the New World, Lloyd Irving, during the catastrophic massacre that would go down in history as the Blood Purge.

* * *

**What'd you think? Hopefully you can understand it. I had trouble writing the part where Ratatosk takes the identity of Emil and I hope the first Emil not living but living on through Ratatosk-Emil made sense… it did in my head.**

**Ciao! StealOh**

**p.s. you see that button? it says Review. *hint-hint, nudge-nudge***


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